Arizona Coyotes Should Move To Lindback Now

Arizona Coyotes should make a move to Anders Lindback on a permanent basis, and cut Mike Smith.

It’s time for the Arizona Coyotes to make a goalie change and move forward from there. While Mike Smith was the hero of their past playoff runs, his continued lack of consistency is hurting the team. He is only consistent in putting the Coyotes in a hole. His inconsistency causes lack of confidence. Lack of confidence in your goalie causes losses.

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The issues for the Coyotes also include healthy financial hits if they decide to move on from Smitty. The goaltender is signed for four more years with a $5.67 million per year cap hit. The $24 million in actual pay is enough to make any owner blanch with this type of production.

So, the Arizona Coyotes could choose to buyout the remaining term of the contract and bite a smaller, but still sizable bullet. If the Coyotes go this route, a la Mike Ribeiro, they would pay $16 million over 8 years. That’s a lot of cheddar to tell someone to go away. Especially while you are still paying the cash for Ribeiro.

So is it the right move? I say yes, despite the money. The Coyotes are in the business to win. Smitty is preventing them from winning and moving forward.  The Desert Dogs have found themselves on the short side far too often, and far too early, in far too many games.

The other point worthy of evaluation is Smith’s age. Near the end of this season he will be 34. By the end of his huge contract, he will be 38. He is not as healthy as he used to be, due to his age catching up to him. Lindback is only 27, and is starting to show, like Devan Dubnyk did before he got traded to the Wild, that he could be better than Smith.

Will the Arizona Coyotes let two promising goalies go elsewhere to help some other team?

Sorry Smitty, but your play does not equal your worth. With a 10-9-1 record, and a .901 save percentage, and a really poor 3.06 goals against average… would you continue to pay him $5.67 million? I wouldn’t. Surely GM Don Maloney would be embarrassed that he made another mistake with a huge contract to a player not worthy of it, but hey… none of us is perfect. Just suck it in Don, and move on… for the good of the team.

If you evaluate what the team needs in this critical season, it is better goaltending, and Smith’s record thus far doesn’t show much promise of that occurring. Lindback seems to better position himself for saves, and cuts down the angle more than Smith. Smith seems to think he can just stay in his crease, and rely on his reflexes. Even with Smith having his goalie coach he’s known most of his life helping him this season, his play has really not progressed to acceptable levels.

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With promising goalie Louis Domingue in the AHL, the team will have some adequate backup to Lindback. They also drafted young Adin Hill, whom they drafted at #76 this summer. He is playing for the Portland Winterhawks of the WHL, and has appeared in 21 games with a .918 save percentage, and 2.88 goals against average.

So, it seems that the Arizona Coyotes have made a blunder again, by paying a player way too much, and that player falling short of expectations. It just doesn’t seem to make any sense to continue to hope that Smith will just wake up one day and start to play better in the net. Lindback is the way to go now, even if it means eating Smith’s undeserving contract.